Prepaid wireless telephones are typically activated by a carrier of airtime minutes or a reseller thereof, and a user may initiate the activation process by calling the reseller. The caller typically provides the reseller with certain information over the phone relating to the activation process, such as the identity of the caller, the electronic serial number of the prepaid wireless telephone being activated, etc. Each carrier is typically associated with at least two distinct business entities, each of which have their own outdated infrastructures. To activate the prepaid wireless telephone, the reseller must typically undertake a lengthy, burdensome process, whereby a customer service representative places the caller's telephone call on hold, calls a first business to facilitate a provisioning process, and then calls another business to facilitate the process of loading airtime minutes onto an account associated with the prepaid wireless telephone being activated. Compounding these inefficiencies, the various carriers and prepaid wireless telephones utilize disparate communication protocols (e.g., CDMA, TDMA, GSM, etc.), which increases the burden on the reseller.
What is needed in the art is a better system and method for enabling use of the prepaid wireless telephone that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.